The loot . . .

. . . from Junk Bonanza and other smaller venues.

Okay blogger, I love ya and all, but when you try to improve things, sometimes you just mess things up!  Anyone know how to rotate uploaded images?  And yes, the image was taken vertically but was saved vertically also!  Go figure!  Well, you all need a little neck exercise to get the kinks out so just look crooked, 'kay?

Got me some way cool ironstone.  Thinkin I need more so a new collection has begun!  Yup, I REALLY need a new collection!  Am going to use the old hinges for photo propping and if I get enough, for placecard holders some day.

Well!  This I just HAD to HAVE!  A paperweight so my dreams don't just blow away.

Hit the mother load on bling!  The most I paid for a piece was (now don't hate me) $4.00!

Neck exercise alert!

All of the birdie cards sing out the song 'Blue Skies'.  Might be kinda cute to change things up with different holiday songs.  Yeah, I'll get that done!

A small buffet that is in really good shape.  Think I'll live with it over the winter and see if I'd like it better painted.

A teacher's register from 1891.  Fifty cents, girls, fifty cents!

Such beautiful handwriting!  No one even writes by hand anymore, let alone write beautifully!  A lost art for sure.

Neck exercise alert again!  Yeah, don't know how this one got turned this way in the upload process but blogger better darn well work out the bugs on this update!

I'm guessing this will be the last of the goodies for a long while.  Shows are over for the season and I tend to stay away from Christmas events.  I have WAY TOO MUCH Christmas and I'm even giving my kids alot of my precious treasures.  Has anyone else noticed that the older you get, the simpler you want your surroundings?  Besides, harvest will officially start TOMORROW on the old farmsted and there will be NO galavanting about!

Now, go do something that makes you happy . . . 





Just too, too clever . . .

. . . is what the designers of the Backman Fall Ideas House created.  Oh to have the ideas (and access to just the right stuff) that these people do.

LOVE these ruffled pillows!   I'm thinking that I need to try to make one of these.  Can you buy plaid like this anymore?  Probably recycled shirts or something.

Any little boy would be out-of-this-world thrilled to have this room.  Can you believe REAL car parts!

Clever!

Clever-er!

Clever-est!

Car door handles for the dresser!

Kitchen ceiling light.  More graters!

And the best part of traveling to Junk Bonanza?  Meeting and greeting my blogging friend Linda of Itsy Bits and Pieces!  Her cutie patootie daughter and her have a booth there every year with the best stuff imaginable!

Don't look at ME!  Look at HER!  She just oozes sweetness!  Hi ya Linda!

I didn't mean to solicit sympathy about my cold but I sure appreciate the get well wishes.  I feel worse today.  I need you all to rush over here and make me soup, and get me more kleenex and make me a hot toddy.  Lots of hot toddies!

I HAVE to be better by this weekend so I'm off to find my blankie and couch!

Thanks for visiting today . . .

One day turns into . . .

. . . three days since I've been home from Junk Bonanza.  I did bring something home from Minnesota that I didn't expect -- a cold (cough, cough)!  It was chilly up north, I tell ya, and I didn't prepare for it (flip flops and short pants).  So nothing much has been accomplished around here.

Junk Bonanza was fantabulous again!  But I went with a plan and every time my eye spied something that would fit in that plan, it had a sold sign on it.  Guess I'm going to have to buck up, get myself out of bed, stand in line (in the cold!) with the other diehard junkers and go to the early bird sale.  But before you feel too sorry for poor pitiful me, know that I did manage to find a few things.  I'll show ya later!

There are lots of photos of JB on blogs all over the web so you'll have to go visit them if you are interested.  I didn't take a single picture.  Too crowded!

But I haven't seen too much posted about the Bachman Fall Ideas House and I took HUNDREDS of photos and I'm gonna make you look AT THEM ALL!  Just kidding!  But I will show you a few of the more clever, cutest and/or bizarre ideas that the designers came up with.

Life size scarecrows greeted us.

Such a cute idea, don't ya think?  Why are all of my hoses red?

Where do they find all of these flat graters?  Is there a flat grater store in Minnesota?

Bizarre, but too cute!

HUGE chalkboard above the fireplace.  Love it!

Okay, we can all do this one.  Crumpled up brown paper for a tablecloth. 

Yup, love me anything galvanized.  And it twirls!

Old library drawers.  Thought these were very clever!

I even bought one!

An updated 'can next to the stove to hold utensils' look.

Oh yeah, we all would love these tables!  I'm saving my newspapers to roll up and put a piece of glass on top.  But you have to admit that this is one original idea!

This idea is very clever.  Really like it!  I guess anything looks better with a piece of twine tied around it.

I have a few more photos of the Bachman House to show you but I am having 'puter issues.  And then you really must see the goodies I brought home with me!  Besides the cold, I mean (cough, cough).

All in all, it was another great Junk Bonanza and the show really gets better every year.  But my bucket list is calling me and I want to go to Round Top/Marburger next year.  If any of you have been to both, let me know which you prefer!

I hear my main man coughing downstairs so I suppose we'll just pass this cold back and forth all season!  Better get to the pills before he does!

Stay healthy . . .

I feel special . . .

. . . because of the gifts I have recently received.  Just because I stated in my last post that I loved giveaways, the giveaway gods looked down kindly at me and blessed me.  Look what I won!

The most fabulous pillow made from the most fabulous fabric by the most fabulous Michelle of Petite Coterie.

A gorgeously wrapped package from Rhonda at A Little Bit French.

With this gorgeous piece of fabric collage!  What can I say but ooh-la-la!

And these wonderful bits and baubles from my wonderful friend Lynn of Trash to Treasure Arts fame!  And get this . . . she sent all of this wonderfullness for NO REASON AT ALL!  I'm humbled, I really am!  I LOVE this bloggy world!  Thank you ladies!

I have been playing with my fancy, schmancy camera so you have to endure some of my practice shots.  Wouldn't some of them look really professional with some Photoshop textures?  If I knew how to do Photoshop textures, that is!

Okay, that's all.  If you looked at them at all, thank you! 

Thanks to all of you who answered so many of my questions from my last post.  You are now considered my 'go-to' people on all things blogging so be prepared to help a poor girl out again!

I'll be leaving for Junk Bonanza on Wednesday and I won't be back to my computer until Sunday.  Do you think I'll find anything worthy to bring back to the farm?  Do you think I'll have room in the car for all my purchases?  Do you think I'll spend every last dime I take along?  Uh, yup (except maybe the car thing.  Don't you think I should take the pick'um up truck?)!

Minnesota . . . here I come again!

PS  ~ to Suz and Miss Iowa.  Please leave me the names of your blogs!  Can't find you anywhere!  Another one of those bloggy things I don't know about.

What I don't know . . .

. . . well, what I don't know about a lot of stuff could fill volumns.  But as I was commenting on my friend Lynn's blog, Trash to Treasure Art, about something fabulous she had made, AS ALWAYS, she asked me to send her a 'pm'.  I had no clue what a 'pm' was and I had to look dumb, AS ALWAYS, and ask her what the heck was a 'pm'?   Well, after finding out it was a 'personal message', I got to wondering what else I didn't know about blogging. 

So, what I don't know about blogging (again, volumns could be written but I'll just stick to a few items) . . .

• 
  
  I don't know how to follow someone who has a typepad blog.
• 
  
  I don't know if Google Reader is the same as being a follower.
• 
  
  I don't know how to get a previous post to 'stay on top', where subsequent posts follow below.
• 
  
  I don't know how to get the title of each post to appear larger than it does.
• 
  
  I don't know how to reply to a comment other than have it show on the post itself.  I always have to go to the commentor's blog and find their email address.
• 
  
  I don't know what alot of the shortcut initals stand for that people use for their family members.  Some one should write a post explaining them all!
• 
  
  I don't know how to find out FOR SURE that none of you who comment have to go through that pesky word verification.  Boy, I hate that!  But I understand why some still use it. 
• 
  
  I don't know if your comment shows immediately or if it says it will be visible after approval.
• 
  
  I don't know how to copy the random number generator thingy so that no one thinks I play favorites on giveaways.
• 
  
  I don't know why some bloggers NEVER acknowledge my comments.  Aren't they getting them?  Am I too insignificant?  Did I offend them?
• 
  
  I don't really understand the follower thing.  Can you imagine having thousands of followers?  Can one person really handle hundreds of comments?  (Try me!  I'd drop everything and just read comments!)
• 
  
  I don't know how you all get everything done!  Please tell me you have housekeepers, cooks, bookkeepers, social secretaries and lawn mowers so I don't feel like I am the laziest, most unmotivated person of them all!  I am constantly in awe of your beautiful homes, your selling at markets and of all that you get accomplished!
• Edited to add after I checked out my own blog . . . I obviously don't know how to do the bullets.  They show up ABOVE my words. 

While I'm ranting, I'll force my opinions about giveaways on you . . .

• 
  
  Love 'em!
• 
  
  I think that if you are kind and generous enough to offer something you think someone would like, I'll play along.  I know how it feels when there are just a few comments received when you have pondered long and hard about what to give away.  Everyone wants to feel the love and I am happy to oblige.  Plus, you all are the most amazing crafters and I LOVE your creations!
• 
  
  If you ask me to spread the news, I am more than honored to give you a shout out on my sidebar!  Even if YOU win and I don't!
• 
  
  I've found many a blog buddy by following a sidebar picture. 
• 
  
  If there are hundreds of comments trying to win, I usually don't try.  But that doesn't mean I don't love your blog.  I just don't think I'm that lucky!
• 
  
  Please don't dump me as a follower right after a giveaway.  Stay and see what else I might have in store.
• 
  
  Please don't have a giveaway and then never announce who won.  We want to congratulate the winner (or sneak over to her house and grab the prize)!  And worst of all, please don't have a giveaway and then never send it!!!  Yup, it's happened to me.

I have rambled on enough!  As you can tell, there is ALOT I don't know.  If you have the answers, then please share!  If you have different opinions than mine, please tell me.  I promise to listen and even change my mind.  If you have anything you'd like to know about me, out with it!  I'll bare it all!

And since it is against blogger law not to have a picture in each and every post, here is my contribution . . .   

Now, go be creative!